The Headlines - A New Test of Federal Judges’ Power, and Overdose Deaths Plummet

Episode Date: May 15, 2025

Plus, the campy singing contest the whole world watches.On Today’s Episode:In Birthright Citizenship Case, Supreme Court Examines the Power of District Judges, by Abbie VanSickleHouse Republicans Push Forward Plan to Cut Taxes, Medicaid and Food Aid, by Catie Edmondson and Margot Sanger-KatzKennedy, Defending Downsizing, Clashes With Democrats in Tense Hearings, by Sheryl Gay StolbergDrug Overdose Deaths Plummeted in 2024, C.D.C. Reports, by Jan HoffmanCassie Ventura Says Sean Combs Used Sex Videos as Blackmail Tools, by Julia Jacobs, Joe Coscarelli and Thomas FullerHow to Win Eurovision in 7 Easy Steps, by Alex Marshall and Miriam QuickTune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter. Tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. 

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Thursday, May 15th. Here's what we're covering. At the Supreme Court today, the justices will take up a case involving one of President Trump's most controversial policies, his executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship. Since the 14th Amendment was passed more than a century ago, it's been broadly accepted that everyone born in the U.S. is a citizen, regardless of their parents' immigration status.

But Trump has almost single-handedly elevated what was considered a fringe theory that the children of undocumented immigrants don't qualify. It's something that had been quietly batted around by a conservative think tank in California for years before Trump brought it up on Fox News during his first campaign. Because the 14th Amendment says if you're born here, you're an American and you can't kick Americans out. And then if you wanted to deport the people already here, each and every one are entitled to due process.

You must know all that. Bill, I think you're wrong about the 14th Amendment. And frankly, the whole thing with anchor babies and the concept of anchor babies, I don't think you're right about that. I can quote it. You want me to quote you the amendment? If you're born here, you're an American. Period. Period. But there are many lawyers. Many lawyers are saying that's not the way it is. While Trump didn't challenge birthright citizenship in his first term, on day one of this term, he signed his executive order, setting off a tsunami of legal pushback. Federal judges

quickly blocked the order nationwide with injunctions, teeing up a legal fight that will now go before the justices. Today's arguments won't tackle Trump's theory about citizenship head on. They'll be centered instead on whether federal judges have the right to block his order. The question for the court today is, does one federal judge have the power to freeze a policy for the entire country? My colleague, Abby Van Sickle, covers the Supreme Court. The Trump administration is arguing that these nationwide injunctions are an overreach, that they are too much power for one single federal judge to be able to block the executive branch's

policies. On the other side, lawyers for attorneys general offices and immigrant advocacy groups are expected to argue that this is an appropriate use of such a nationwide pause. Because if a federal judge were to only block this for part of the country, that you would have a patchwork of policies, in this case a patchwork of birthright citizenship policies throughout the country. Abby says that the outcome of this case could have profound consequences for any legal efforts to push back on President Trump's stream of executive orders.

In February alone, judges issued 15 nationwide injunctions against the administration. The court's decision will likely come next month. Now, a few quick updates on Congress. The American people are counting on us to get this done and get it done quickly. And we are on target to do it. House Republicans pulled an all-nighter this week to push forward a major domestic policy package that President Trump has labeled the big, beautiful bill.

The bill would extend and expand certain tax breaks and pay for that, in part, by making cuts to Medicaid, food stamps, and subsidies for clean energy. The Medicaid overhaul in particular has drawn intense criticism from Democratic lawmakers and even some Republicans like Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri since it would force an estimated 8 million Americans off their insurance. These are working people and their children who need health care. And it's just wrong to go and cut their health care when they're trying to make ends meet, trying to make sure that they're able to provide for their families.

So I hope that the House... The legislation will now go to the full House, where GOP leaders are hoping to get it passed by the end of next week, though they'll need the support of almost every Republican to do so. Also on Capitol Hill. Mr. Secretary, how many employees have been let go so far? Excuse me? How many employees have been let go so far from your me? How many employees have been let go so far from your... About 10,000 took the fork in the road.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced fierce questions from House and Senate committees yesterday about his drastic revamp of the department. Kennedy's plans have included cutting 20,000 jobs, which is one quarter of the workforce, and collapsing entire agencies. Democratic lawmakers accused him of undermining health programs Congress had already funded.

If you appropriate me the funds, I'm going to suspend them. We have in the bill. You are cutting the NIH by $18 billion. Kennedy defended the cuts, saying they were painful but necessary to address the federal deficit. He also tried to claim he had not fired, quote, any working scientists, even though hundreds of scientists from the National Institutes of Health, the FDA, and the CDC have lost their jobs.

Meanwhile, Kennedy's testimony came the same day that the CDC released new data on drug overdose deaths in the U.S. It shows deaths plummeted by nearly 30,000 last year, the strongest sign yet that the country has made progress against one of its biggest public health crises. Addiction specialists say some of it is due to the illicit drug supply itself. Like, for example, some fentanyl on the street is getting weaker. itself, like for example some fentanyl on the street is getting weaker. But they also point to greater access to drug treatment and the widespread availability of medication to reverse overdoses. Some of Kennedy's proposed cuts include programs many believe contributed to the drop in overdoses. In Manhattan, the sex trafficking trial of Sean Combs, the music mogul known as Diddy

and Puff Daddy, will resume this morning with the cross-examination of the prosecution's star witness. The singer Cassandra Ventura, known as Cassie, has spent the last two days describing often violent and graphic details from her years-long relationship with Combs. She recounted wrenching descriptions of physical abuse, bruises on her body from that abuse, and emotional descriptions about how she felt after the sexual encounters at the heart of the government's case. She used words like disgusting, humiliated. She said she felt empty after them. My colleague Julia Jacobs is covering the trial. She says Cassie's been testifying

about the drug-fueled episodes that Combs called freak-offs. Cassie claims that Combs also blackmailed her with videos of the encounters to keep her quiet. Combs has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and claimed the encounters were consensual. You know, Sean Combs is sitting between his lawyers. He has eight of them at this point. He often whispers to them, writes notes. He seems quite active in his own defense. And at the end of her testimony yesterday, according to my colleague, Combs turned around from where he was sitting, looked at his family, and mouthed the words, I'm OK.

Combs' lawyers are set to start questioning Cassie today. The defense has suggested she's tried to use her accounts of violence to get money from Combs in the past. She filed a civil suit against him in 2023, alleging abuse. They reached a settlement in one day. She revealed on the stand yesterday that the settlement was for $20 million. And finally. Eurovision is the, how can I put it, Eurovision is probably the most ridiculous television spectacle in the world.

It's an event held every year where dozens of countries submit a singer to represent them on the world stage. Times culture reporter Alex Marshall is covering Eurovision this year, the highly campy singing competition that is also the most watched cultural event on the planet. It's got a long and storied history. Back in the 70s, it helped launch the Swedish pop sensation ABBA.

It's also highlighted some lesser known acts like the heavy metal dance act from Croatia known as Baby Lasagna. Tonight, there's a semi-final ahead of Eurovision's grand finale this Saturday in Switzerland. I'm heading to Eurovision, so as part of my preparation for that, I've been looking back through the past 25 years,

winners, to work out what it takes to actually win. There are some musical things that do help. When we did our analysis, we realized that a lot of the winners feature folk music or feature folk instruments. So it really does help if you've got an accordion or two in there somewhere. And several of the acts this year do indeed have one. And what I think I've ultimately decided is you need to have amazing staging. I mean, the Beatles could have been on stage singing Hey Jude,

and they wouldn't have stood a chance in Eurovision if it was just them standing in suits playing away. What they would have needed would have been barrel loads of pyrotechnics going off around them, maybe a piano burning on stage, maybe a man in a hamster wheel, inexplicably spinning behind them. To a lot of viewers, the song is almost irrelevant. It's the madness of the performance,

the brilliance of the performance. Like this year's favorites, according to British gambling companies, is Sweden's Act, who are a comedy troupe called Kai, who are singing a song about going to the sauna. And when they perform it, they perform on stage in a fake sauna with sort of scantily clad dancers around them. You know, what I hope if you do tune into your revision this year, I really hope at least one song gets stuck in your head. And if you believe the betting firms,

it will be Sweden's Kai with Baro Baro Basta, the song about saunas. You know, that does tick all our boxes for what makes a great Eurovision hit. It's a spectacle, it has an accordion, and it's got an amazingly catchy chorus. amazingly catchy chorus. Those are the headlines today on The Daily. What President Trump's ongoing trade war with China means for fast fashion and online

shopping. That's next in the New York Times audio app where you can listen wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.